How to Set Up Pinterest:

1) Sign up for an account

The first most obvious step is to sign up for a Pinterest account. You’ll want to sign up as a business so that you can get access to all of the analytics.

Go to Pinterest.com and choose to sign up as a business account.

You’ll then be walked through the sign-up process.

Choose your country and language.

2) Choose Your Name

Now is the time to choose your name. You want to put in whatever your blog name is going to be.

I would also recommend including your name as I have – see the example below.

You’ll be promoted to enter your url. If you haven’t yet bought your domain, you can leave this until later. Otherwise, go ahead and type it in.

You’ll be asked to do a series of things like connect several other accounts. If you have them set up you can go ahead and do so. But, you can also leave those until later.

They’ll ask you whether or not you intend to run ads. I’ve always chosen “I’m not sure”. I’ve never used them yet, but I might one day.

Pinterest wants you to choose one of the categories that they present you with as being the closest to what your business is.

Honestly, I found the categories quite limiting, so I had to be creative. Just pick whichever is closest or makes the most sense to your brand.

Pinterest has a browser extension button that you can add on for free. It just means that you can pin from basically anywhere, even if they haven’t installed a ‘pin it’ button on their site.

I definitely use mine quite a bit, so I would recommend getting it.

Finally, this is the page that you’ll come to.

It gives you some basic instructions on how to create your first pin. Generally speaking, you won’t be creating pins like this at all, but it is handy to know about.

You could try creating a pin now, otherwise just click on the Pinterest logo button in the upper left-hand side of the page to head to your feed.

3) Complete Your Profile

The next thing you’ll want to do is complete your profile. To do this head on over to the 3 dots in the upper right-side of the page.

A drop down menu will appear and you’ll need to click on ‘settings’.

This is the place where you can complete your profile and alter any settings such as your email address, password, etc.

You can also create your pinterest url. I would recommend you making it to match all of your other social media handles if possible.

Go ahead and complete the profile section.

Give a good description of your blog using keywords that people would use to search for the topics you cover.

4) Claim your Domain

Claiming your domain can seem a little daunting if you’re not familiar with coding. However, let me assure you that it is very simple and I’ll walk you through the entire process.

Plus, it is a vital step when you set up your Pinterest account.

Here are the instructions directly from Pinterest. It all looks totally straightforward until you’re told to copy and paste the code into the header section of your blog.

If you’re unfamiliar with coding, then you’re likely wondering where on earth that is and how you find it.

Let me show you.

In your WordPress dashboard you want to head over to the left-hand side and hover your mouse over appearance. In the drop down menu, click on ‘Editor’.

You’ll be taken to a screen that looks something like this. A pop-up containing a warning might also appear. Don’t panic. Just click okay and carry on.

On the right-hand side find where it says ‘header’ and click on it.

Next, look for the <head> tag in the text. You want to paste the code from Pinterest under that tag.

Once you’ve done that, click update or save and then head back to Pinterest. Once there, you need to click ‘Submit’ and Pinterest will let you know when to expect to hear whether or not your site has been verified.

5) Create Relevant Boards

Okay, that’s all the tricky coding stuff dealt with, so now we move onto the fun stuff!

I’ll teach you how to set up Pinterest boards for your account.

Head to your feed by clicking on the Pinterest logo. Type in something to do with your blog niche.

For instance “blogging tips”.

Click on a pin that you like and go to repin it. You’ll be prompted to create a board. Name it something simple that people will search for.

i.e Blogging Tips

Now, head to your profile and create more niche-specific boards.

You’ll want to make sure to make one that is exclusively for your blog content. Name it the same as your blog name.

As you create your boards, make sure to fill out the board descriptions. You’ll want them to be in sentence form, but filled with relevant keywords.

Don’t worry about setting board covers. Users very rarely take the time to actually visit your profile, so in my opinion, it isn’t worth your effort creating covers for each board.

6) Start Pinning

Now, start pinning! Of course, if you haven’t launched your blog yet, then you’ll have no content of your own, but it’s still a great idea to start filling up those boards and showing Pinterest that you’re an active user.

Just pin 2-3 times throughout the day when you think of it. I like to pin around 10 pins each time, give or take a few.

How to Set Up Pinterest with Strategy:

7) Create Templates

Part of knowing how to set up Pinterest for blog growth is knowing how to use it well.

So, let’s talk about design and strategy. Before you launch your blog and before you get pin-happy, I strongly recommend that you create some pin templates.

Somewhere in the region of 3-6 (although I have several more than that!).

I create mine using Photoshop, but Canva is a great free alternative that many bloggers use with great success!

You want clean, vertical pins (600x900px or 600x1260px).

Choose fonts that are easy to read and use photos that a crisp and good quality.

Compared to June 2017, my traffic in July 2017 was almost 5 times as much. That’s an increase of 398%!

That was almost 2 years ago now and my Pinterest traffic is so. much. higher. than that.

So, how does it work?

Well, you can batch schedule pins to go out at optimal times. This means that your content (and others) is being constantly shared, which results in users having a higher chance of seeing it and clicking through to your blog.

You can create a schedule that creates times based on your best analytics.

They also have a couple of great features.

First up are Tribes.

They’re like groups where you can share your content and others will share it on their Pinterest accounts. These tribes are great because reciprocation is highly encouraged.

You can see how many re-shares your pins have had as well as how many pins you have shared from the group.

I love how easy it is to monitor everything and evaluate how your pins are doing.

Secondly is Pinterest’s newest feature, SmartLoops.

Basically, what SmartLoops does is cycle your most popular content. It is done slowly so that it doesn’t appear spammy and you can customise the what, when, and where of it all.

You can sign up for a free trial of Tailwind, which includes 100 pins. There is no time limit on it. You’ll only be prompted to upgrade once you’ve used up all of your pins.

Honestly, if there was one thing I would recommend you spend your money on in order to grow your blog traffic, it would hands down be Tailwind.

Not only for the traffic that it will bring in, but also for all the time it will save you!

10) Join Groups/Tribes

Regardless of whether you decide to use Tailwind or not, you’ll at least want to try and find some niche-specific group boards.

This will help to get your content out to more users and also provide you with quality content from other pinners to share on your account.

There are a huge amount of group boards out there and yet you’re likely wondering how to find them.

I talk all about how to do just that in my free course. All you need to do is sign up.

11) Join Facebook Groups

Facebook groups can be a great way to promote your content as well as network with other bloggers.

I have two Facebook groups that I personally love to promote my pins in which I’ve shared in my course.

There are many groups out there, but they are not all great quality. Take advantage of my experience and find out which ones I love.

Plus, you can join the Raising Kids Making Money Community where you’ll have the opportunity of sharing your content with others and learning new tips and tricks.

Click on the picture to join!

12) Pin Your Content!

And you’re ready! It is now time to start pinning your content.

You now know how to set up Pinterest to grow your blog. With your beautifully designed templates, I’m sure that the pins you create will drawer readers to you blog in no time.

Remember to use keyword-rich descriptions and include 3-4 relevant hashtags to help them rank higher in searches.

If you’re wondering what kind of strategy to use when pinning, then I talk all about that and more in my free course.

Sign up for it and you’ll receive a wealth of information about pin design, getting started with Pinterest. Pinning strategies for when you have little to no content, and how to use Pinterest with or without Tailwind.

If you’re brand new to blogging, Pinterest, or both, then you won’t be disappointed.

Getting started with Pinterest right away will give you a great head start with your blog traffic. Not only that, but I personally find it a fun platform to use.

Hi Naomi. This is a good question. If your audience is not on there to search for the content that you’re creating, then probably not. I would look more into SEO and find out where they DO look for their info. 🙂

Hey, I’m Christine! Owner and creator of Raising Kids Making Money. I started my parenting blog Christine Keys back in February ’17. It quickly became both my creative outlet and an online income stream. Now I want to be able to teach other moms how to do the same!